Tampines
Tampines (tæmpəˈniːs) (or''Tampines New Town'') is the largest and greatest ever residential area in the city-state of Singapore. It is the second largest commercial hub outside the Central Region of Singapore after the Jurong Lake District and will be a future logistics hub of Singapore. It is in the East Region of the main island. The town is so named because in the 1900s (decade) a large forest of ironwood trees, or tempinis, were there. Like other districts in Singapore, it is densely populated with the population density higher than other housing districts. Tampines New Town is a regional centre that lies to the east of Singapore's city centre, much like the centrally located Orchard Road. History In the past, Tampines was covered by forests, swamp and sand quarries. Ironwood trees, or tempinis, grew abundantly here and thus gave the area its name. It was part of military training area until about 1987. The name Tampines goes back to the Franklin and Jackson map of 1828. It is named after Sungei Tampenus, which in turn got its name from the tampines trees (Streblus elongatus) which were said to be growing there. The oldest street in the area, Tampines Road, dates to 1864 when it was a cart tract. At the turn of the 20th century, Tampines was a rubber plantation. Tampines was also home to the sand quarry for a long time. Among the plantations were Teo Tek Ho and Hun Yeang estates. The new town started in 1978. Construction began for Neighbourhoods 1 and 2 and was completed between 1983 and 1987 although they were given priority. Neighbourhoods 8 and 9 started in 1985–1989, followed by Neighbourhood 5 which was completed in 1989 with the Tampines Town Centre. Neighbourhood 4 was completed with the new Tampines North Division between 1986 and 1988. Tampines Town was at the fast-paced expansion, that breaks it into Tampines East, Tampines West, Tampines North and Tampines Changkat divisions. For the Singapore MRT plans, they showed "Tampines North" and "Tampines South" since the planning stages which is due to the similar townships from 1979 to 1982, before they were renamed respectively in 1985 to Tampines and Simei. New construction methods expedited the development of the town's infrastructure. Using prefabricated parts, a block of high-rise flats could be built in a month. More attractive designs, colours and finishings were incorporated into Tampines, compared to earlier public housing which consisted of uniform slabs of concrete laid out row after row with more thought given to function than form. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) managed the construction of the town until 1991, when it handed the reins over to the Tampines Town Council. The Town Council is run by grassroot leaders and the residents themselves. The Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992. The award was given in recognition of an outstanding contribution towards human settlement and development. Neighbourhoods 3 and 7 were only fully completed in 1997, and the constituencies had been reformed to include the new Tampines Central division. Construction was paused until the developments of Tampines Central were started in 2010, which includes The Premiere @ Tampines, Tampines GreenLeaf, Centrale 8, Tampines Trilliant and Citylife @ Tampines, including some of the other leftover pockets of residential developments such as Tampines GreenTerrace, Arc @ Tampines, Q Bay Residences and The Santorini. Neighbourhood 6, which is also known as Tampines North New Town, has started construction with the first Build-To-Order (BTO) flats Tampines GreenRidges being announced at the end of November 2014. Tampines GreenRidges is also part of the first phase of development of the Tampines North New Town's Park West District, which is the first district to be constructed in the Tampines North New Town development. On January 28, 2013, there was an accident at Tampines Avenue 9 involving a bicycle and a cement truck left 2 boys aged 7 and 13 killed. It was reported that brother, Nigel Yap was controlling the bicycle with his 7-year-old brother when the incident happened. The 56 year old Singapore cement truck driver was arrested immediately for causing death by rash act. A year later, parents, Mr Francis Yap and Madam Suliani Ang still have nightmares of the incident. Although, they still believe they have find closure during their memorial at Mandai Crematorium. Geography Tampines is bounded by the Tampines Expressway, Tampines Avenue 10, canal north of Bedok Reservoir, Upper Changi Road, Simei Avenue, north of private estate off Upper Changi Road, Simei Road, west of private estate off Upper Changi Road North, the Pan Island Expressway, and back along Tampines Expressway. Amenities Tampines New Town is home to over 237,800 residents living in 152,000 HDB flats spread out over 24.24 square kilometres: Industrial services Commercial and industrial services are located at Tampines Retail Park, Tampines Industrial Park and Tampines LogisPark. Commercial services Retail shopping in the Tampines Regional Centre is done at three main shopping malls: Tampines Mall, Century Square and Tampines 1. Commercial tenants of the shopping centres include restaurants, supermarkets, department stores, cinemas, bookstores, jewelry and gift shops. While outside there is East Point Mall and Changi City Point. Community services The Tampines Regional Library is located at Tampines Town Centre and organises events for children and adults to promote reading and learning. Parks The three main parks in the Tampines are SunPlaza Park, at Tampines Avenue 7 and 9; Tampines Bike Park (officially closed down to make way for the second part of Tampines North), at the junction of Tampines Avenue 9 and 7; and NParks latest nature park as of April 24, 2011, Tampines Eco Green, at the junction of Tampines Avenue 12 and 9. All of the parks are close to each other to provide easy access to each. Transportation A network of expressways, the Pan Island Expressway and Tampines Expressway, and arterial roads allows easy movement within the town and link it to other parts of the island. Public transportation is served by - MRT There are currently 6 MRT stations that serve the planning area across 2 lines, the East West Line and Downtown Line. Both lines have two interchange stations at Tampines MRT Station and Expo MRT Station on the Changi Airport Branch line. The stations of the Downtown Line were opened on 21 October 2017 as part of DTL3. The 6 stations are: *Tampines MRT Station *Godric's Hollow MRT Station *Block 157 Station *Block 123 Station *Somapah MRT Station *Simei MRT Station *Huang Wen MRT Station *Expo MRT Station In addition, Xilin MRT Station is a future station of the DTL3 extension, will be completed in 2024, in tandem with the opening of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line. Roads A network of expressways, the Pan-Island Expressway and Tampines Expressway, and arterial roads allows easy movement within the town and link it to other parts of the island. Tampines Avenue 10, an arterial road, forms the start/end of the Outer Ring Road System, a semi-expressway. Tampines Avenue 1 is a road in Tampines. It goes from Tampines Avenue 4 all the way until Tampines Avenue 8. It had speed cameras nearby. On 13 August 2012, Ernest Mok was fined for speeding along that stretch. It is opened to traffic on 1984 and partially in 1994 when the Temasek Polytechnic opened. It was connected all the way to Tampines Avenue 10 in 1997. Further west of Tampines Avenue 1 it has Arc @ Tampines (being built in 2012), The Tropica (being built in 2000), Tampines Road is a road in Tampines. It originally has the main throughfare to the Upper Changi Road from the Upper Serangoon Road. The road was diverted because of Paya Lebar Airbase construction in 1951 - 1955. It was the only road until the Tampines New Town had been developed, and the Tampines Expressway truncates the road. Today, some sort of section has been renamed to Tampines Link because of Tampines Retail Park nearby. Buses There are two bus interchanges, the Tampines Bus Interchange and Tampines Concourse Bus Interchange. Tampines Bus Interchange has been operating since 1983 as a bus terminus and later on it moved to Tampines Central 1 in 1987. Tampines Concourse Bus Interchange was opened on 18 December 2016 to increase the capacity of the existing Tampines Bus Interchange. Other bus services are: *Tampines MRT Station Bus Shelter: Tampines Retail Park Shuttle, Bizlink Shuttle Politics Originally Tampines is under the Tampines Single Member Constituency when it was under the swamp, sand quarry and during the development until 1988. From there, it became Tampines GRC from 1988 onwards. The National Solidarity Party had always been contested in all the general elections except in 1997 where the party had been disqualified. In 2015, the National Solidarity Party had contested again, but lost to the ruling People's Action Party. Currently, the Tampines GRC is led by the PAP and is headed by Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat. Changkat Single Member Constituency (Traditional Chinese: 尚育單選區; Simplified Chinese: 尚育单选区) is a former single member constituency in Tampines, Singapore. It existed only in 1984 to 1988, which was carved from Tampines SMC and most of the portion went back into Tampines GRC in 1988 while the remaining portion was absorbed into Changi SMC. Today as of 2011, it is still a ward of Tampines GRC, under the division of Tampines-Changkat. Education The 12 primary schools, nine secondary schools and three tertiary institutions (one junior college, one polytechnic and one institute of technical education) provide education for Tampines residents and those living in the region. The other schools such as ITE College East and Singapore University of Technology and Design are also mentioned but it is outside the territory. Both East View Secondary School and Angsana Primary School had been reportedly closed down due to the drastic decline of enrollment. Primary schools * Angsana Primary School * Changkat Primary School * Chongzheng Primary School * East Spring Primary School * East View Primary School * Gongshang Primary School * Junyuan Primary School * Poi Ching School * Saint Hilda's Primary School * Tampines North Primary School * Tampines Primary School * Yumin Primary School Secondary schools * Dunman Secondary School * East Spring Secondary School * East View Secondary School * Junyuan Secondary School * Ngee Ann Secondary School * Pasir Ris Secondary School * Springfield Secondary School * Saint Hilda's Secondary School * Tampines Secondary School Tertiary institutions * Tampines Junior College * Temasek Polytechnic International schools * United World College of South East Asia (Tampines Campus) Sports There are two stadiums in Tampines. These include Tampines Stadium, which is the home to Tampines Rovers FC previously. The Tampines Olympic Stadium was later built in 2010, and it replaced Tampines Stadium when the previous one is under the rebuilding stage. Future New Tampines City The New Tampines City will be a new development in Tampines. It will be completed by 2016. Construction started in June 2013. It will located at Tampines Stadium part of Avenue 4 and 5, together with the swimming pool. Tampines Gateway Tampines Gateway is a new integrated hub development in Tampines, Singapore and it will be located at Tampines Bus Interchange, expected to complete in 2020. It will house a 5-star hotel, a casino and shopping mall inclusive of bus interchange. This will include Bonia, Carlo Rino, ALDO, The Chicken Rice Shop, Bonita, Cotton On and American Eagle. This will be largely similar to the Resorts World Genting, when Timothy Mok had went from 14 to 16 June 2013. External links *Tampines Town Council Category:Places in Singapore